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“We expect that Alberta’s land-use plans will reflect global standards for landscape protection. We need to approach planning at an ecosystem-wide scale, and create a network of new protected areas and management zones between them in order to maintain ecosystem services -- like clean water and flood and drought control -- and with room for wildlife to roam.”

Wendy Francis

Y2Y Acting President

Info

Alberta Headwaters

Photo: Alan Ernst

Y2Y is working to ensure greater protection for Alberta’s headwaters.

Y2Y is working to ensure greater protection for Alberta’s headwaters.

THREAT

Headwaters are the source of all rivers or streams and include glaciers, streams, tributaries and more. Alberta’s mountain headwaters provide water for millions of people, deliver important natural services such as flood and drought control, provide critical habitat for wildlife and offer abundant recreation opportunities. While some of our headwaters, and surrounding habitat, are protected, many are not. Poor management practices over many decades mean that some mountain watersheds are no longer healthy and intact.

OPPORTUNITY

The Alberta government is currently engaging in land-use planning for the entire province. Four of the seven provincial planning regions are within the Yellowstone to Yukon region.

These land-use plans are a blueprint for activities that will occur on the land for the next 50 years. They offer a rare opportunity to increase protection for Alberta’s headwaters by managing forestry to reduce flood and drought impacts, creating new protected areas, preserving habitat for endangered and threatened species such as caribou and grizzly bear, and conserving the mountain viewscapes and recreational opportunities that draw so many residents and visitors to our region.

WHAT Y2Y IS DOING

Areas like the Castle Watershed are important for the downstream communities that depend on the clean and safe water that originates here. Image: Stephen Legault

Y2Y is leading the initiative to influence these land-use plans to protect the headwaters within the Yellowstone to Yukon region. Key to these efforts is bringing together key stakeholders from each region to jointly develop a conservation vision for each region. Y2Y expresses this conservation vision to the government through the formal public comment period, and also to the public by organizing public events. Finally, we highlight opportunities for our supporters and the public to weigh in during public comment periods.

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Main Office

200 - 1350 Railway Ave

Canmore, AB, T1W 1P6

Canada

Phone: 1.403.609.2666

Toll-free: 1.800.966.7920

US Office

P.O. Box 157

Bozeman, MT, 59771-0157

Phone: 1.403.609.2666

Toll-free: 1.800.966.7920

In the United States, the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative is a 501(c) 3 tax-exempt organization, IRS #81-0535303. In Canada, the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative Foundation is a registered 149(1)(f) charity, #86430 1841 RR0001.